Steps 1-4
by thecagedsong
Summary: Tetsuo Takahashi prides himself on being able to help demi-humans feel more comfortable in their skin, but helping Sakie Sato is a bit more difficult, considering he can't touch her. Still, he figures out a couple of steps that might help...
1. 1 Admitting it

"Miss Sato, I was hoping we could talk about something kind of personal today," Mr. Takahashi said. Sakie was torn between being disbelieving and embarrassed. Which she supposed was improvement, two months ago she could only have been embarrassed. She decided to try the other one out, though a blush crept onto her face all the same.

"Mr. Takahashi, we've been meeting every weekend for the sake of finding out the biological, psychological, and emotional implications of my ability to seduce men with touch. If that isn't personal, I don't know what is," she replied.

He grinned and laughed, "I suppose you're right, but we've only been talking about it in in the abstract. I was hoping to ask you some more about your personal experiences today."

She flushed, "I…I don't use my power on purpose, never have really, you know that."

"Not you using your aphrodisiac affect, more about how this affects your relationships with men in general," he was quick to assure her, leaning forward. She had started to get over her crush, but with him looking at her like that, asking a question about her relationships with men, her face erupted in a blush and she couldn't help flinging her arms out.

"Don't! Ah," she pulled herself together as he pulled back, clearly disappointed, but accepting. "Ah, no, what I mean is…it's embarrassing, so…could you look away while I explain?" she said, squeezing her eyes shut and hands into fists.

"Oh, of course, whatever makes you the most comfortable," he said, turning his chair away from her sitting on the couch. Ms. Sato peeked when she heard the chair move, and opened her eyes to see him staring at a notebook on his desk. Her heart rate returned to normal, or at least to a pace that allowed her to talk normally.

"Thank you. Sorry for being so…strange." She focused on the window and the outside as she organized her thoughts. She had analyzed herself endlessly, but this was the first time she was going to be sharing these particular psychological findings about herself with anyone else, "I know you must have noticed, but especially in the beginning of our association, I didn't know how to act around you. That's because this is the first relationship with a male that I've attempted based on something other than my succubus ability or my abilities as a teacher."

He stiffened, she noticed in the corner of her eye, but like he promised, he kept silent.

"I loved my father growing up, still do, and we had a very touchy relationship. I would randomly pop into his office to give him hugs and he would play with my hair when we were sitting together for a music concert. Of course, that worked against us when my nature started showing at 13."

"He drew away from me, I didn't know why he started dodging my hugs and he never kissed my forehead goodnight. He told me it was part of growing up, but he never looked at me when he said it. He started buying me baggy tracksuits and my usual outfits started disappearing. He encouraged me to start judo lessons, and eager for some sort of connection with him, I threw myself into the sport. Mom tried to figure out what was going on, but he would never say, just feign ignorance.

"Then came a summer day, it was hot so I was only in a tank top and shorts. I walked into my father's office to ask permission for one of my friends to come over, but he had headphones in and was marking up a document for work. I touched the back of his hand to get his attention and he sort of…short circuited. He jerked away, then his eyes went to me and then he was…" she jerked out of her story for a moment to look at her audience, and he was staring determinedly at his notebook. She whispered the end of the sentence, "then he was kissing me."

"I flipped him," she confessed, watching Mr. Takahasi for his reaction, but not seeing anything, "and then I ran. That night, he left. The shame of being attracted to his daughter was too much. Mom finally put together that I was a succubus, and she called the government office to double check the symptoms. Of course, there was no way to control it other than dressing in the ugliest clothing possible and not touching anyone. That's when Mom started to hate me. From then on, all my interactions with men were seeped with this knowledge that they were uncontrollably attracted to me. It was like reading text over a watermarked image, always in the background."

She pulled her knees up to her chest, "It was my fault too, unless they tried to touch me, then I judo flipped them, embarrassed them, and they didn't try it again. But most of the time it was my fault. If they were unfaithful to their wives or girlfriends, that was me, and if their wives and girlfriends felt worthless after that, that was my fault too." She chuckled darkly.

"Those girlfriends made it very clear that I would never attract a boyfriend on my own, that every relationship I had would be solely based on the man's sexual attraction to me and I would never be anything more than a sex toy. As if I didn't know that already. I had one female friend who stood by me through high school, and I threw myself into my studies otherwise. I made it into a great university, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. Then I realized that if I taught kids, I could dress how I needed to and limit my interactions with men to other teachers. High school boys, especially first years, don't generally have enough of a sex drive to become a problem if they bump into me accidentally."

"Wouldn't teaching elementary or middle school have been better for you then?" Mr. Takahashi asked, speaking for the first time since she began. He was looking at her, but she didn't mind so much now that her story was out.

"It would be," she said with a small smile, "but high school days last longer and succubi have the most difficult time in high school. I only became interested in the other demis after you introduced me to them, but I've always been interested in helping out succubi."

"You're amazing," he said, startling her into a blush. "Most succubi either retreat from civilization or turn themselves into objects for sex because they don't see another option, or that's what Ugaki told me. You chose the hardest path possible, why?"

"It wasn't too difficult, I did have one male friend that, while our relationship was because of my succubus nature, it wasn't sexual," Ms. Sato said, fidgeting with the end of her ponytail.

"Ugaki?" Mr. Takahashi guessed, and Ms. Sato nodded.

"He found me at my school bus stop, he had had some complaints from mothers of other students about me, but when he met me he knew I was doing my best to not attract attention and I was trying to not be defined by my nature. We never touched, but he was willing to support me emotionally where my father wasn't. We would meet up in cafes a couple of times a year and catch up on each other's lives. His wife adores me and they came to my high school and university graduations, proud of me in the place of my parents."

Her eyes glazed over, watching fond memories. And Mr. Takahashi couldn't help but smile at her. Such a dreamer, and so resilient. No wonder Ugaki wanted him to watch over Miss Sato more than the others, he really was like her father.

"I still don't understand why you chose such a difficult life, but I'm glad for it," he said, pulling her from her thoughts.

She blushed and averted her eyes, trying not to let his words effect her, or at least not show it, "Uh, I guess because despite everything, I'm a romantic. One day I hope to have a real relationship with a man who sees me for who I am, and wants to just spend time with me. I want to go on picnics and read and talk about books together. I want someone to spend my quiet time with where we can just…exist. I know that that probably isn't going to happen, because if I truly let down my guard, their thoughts would turn immediately to sex. Sex will be a part of it of course, but my dream of quiet moments is difficult when I have to be aware of every single touch. And there will always be doubt on both sides about whether the attraction is real or my aphrodisiac affect. Despite that, I keep hoping that that will happen, and that small chance goes to no chance if I live as a monk in the mountains. And I'm not really suited to the party animal life, too much of an introvert. Of course, I have a little more faith in myself now, thanks to you."

Now it was his turn to blush, but she wasn't watching, so he took a second to control himself and ask, "What have I done?"

She turned and laughed then, and it was pretty, at the same time that it was loud and forceful, "What have you done?" she laughed. "This is my first successful friendship with a man. In the beginning I wasn't sure what to do, which is why I would occasionally test you with my succubus effects to figure out where you stood. I just didn't understand how a relationship worked that didn't put your attraction to my body as a significant factor. Once I realized that attraction wasn't why you wanted to talk to me, that you were much more interested in what I could teach you about demis around my succubus effect, I could act much more naturally. It was your insistence on acting like I didn't affect you that made me interested in dating you in the first place."

"Wait what?" he asked, mouth dropping open.

"Oh, erm," she said, her laughter leaving and the awkward returning. It was clear she wished she hadn't said that, "Er, like I said, I didn't understand a relationship with a male that didn't factor in attraction. When you didn't seem attracted to me, I replaced it with my own, but only for a little while! Then I figured out you simply respected me and didn't want to make me feel uncomfortable around you, and it would have been against your will if I used my succubus effect on you, so I stopped. Relationships for you are built on more than physical attraction and I've gone and ruined that by making you feel uncomfortable around me, and now I'm just running off at the mouth, and this is so embarrassing!" she curled up into a ball, pressing her head into her knees so that only her reddening roots were available to be seen. Though she continued talking about how much she messed up.

Mr. Takahashi, on his part, suddenly had reanalyze every interaction he had had with Miss Sato, and several things became clearer. He stopped listening to her rambling and was trying to figure out how to factor a succubus's attraction to someone else. Compared to their aphrodisiac effect on others, he had always considered the attraction on the succubus side of the relationship to be minimal or non-existant. Of course that was flawed reasoning, and apparently he now knew what an inexperienced succubus with an attraction to someone looked like. He wondered if they could control the intensity of their effect according to how much they liked the person, like a baseline that increased with their will, or if the attention was what actually changed the situation like it was in normal relationships. This was fascinating.

"and part of it is Ugaki's fault anyway!" that part cut through his thoughts for some reason.

"How is it Ugaki's fault?" he asked. This was the first time he had ever heard her blame someone else for her effect. She was still bright red, matching her track suit.

"Well, er, he's the one that encouraged me to use my aphrodisiac effect on you after he knew I was attracted to you, in the beginning," she admitted.

"What?" he said again, this was a lot more information than he bargained for. She didn't look like she was going to say anything else so he prodded, "I thought that it was his job to stop succubi from using their effects on people."

She looked up, blush fading, "No, I thought you understood. No one can stop a succubus's effect, that infringes on the succubus's agency and liberty, not to mention it's impossible without complete incarceration. Ugaki's job is more about the government interacting with a succubus than stopping the succubus from using her powers to control people. People are on their own for that one. As long as a succubus isn't trying to control the government, they can do what they want. Unless she has a conscience, of course. Ugaki worries about me settling down with a family, knowing what a romantic I am. Plus, he thinks that any guy I decide to seduce would be extremely lucky, even if it was against his will. I disagree with him of course, and figured that out halfway though our first talk like this." She flushed bright red and ducked her head again. He could practically see her thoughts, and "kill me now" seemed to be the most common one.

He wanted to write everything down to think about later, because his thoughts were much too jumbled right now. It didn't help that her aphrodisiac effect was working around her glasses and track suit, or maybe it was just him remembering her in her tank top and sans glasses during that first meeting. Ms. Sato certainly goes zero to one hundred quick.

"I'm sorry," she said, pulling herself even tighter into a ball. There was also the fact that he had wanted to comfort her through her whole story. Between her father and her touch starvation, he felt his heart break. He had wanted to reach out and give her a hug like he had done with the other demis when they needed the comfort no one else would give them, but of course, Miss Sato had already spelled out all the problems with doing that.

"Hey, don't apologize," he said, trying to figure out the words that he needed. "I'm not offended and I enjoy your friendship Ms. Sato."

She peaked through her knees, meaning he was at least on the right track. Strangely he felt the need for Hikari to jump in and demand the correct sort of apology from him. Hikari wanted everybody to be happy, so she created circumstances to fix situations that normally needed time and distance, then when she put all the effort into fixing the situation, everyone just agreed that it was fixed, even if it shouldn't have been. Too bad he was a responsible adult who had to handle this relationship, with another responsible adult, on his own.

"I'm glad I've been able to help you, even if I didn't know I was doing it," he continued, "you've really helped me to understand the challenges facing succubi, and…I promise I won't make it awkward if you're willing to continue to have these weekend talks."

There, that sounded responsible and adult like, and it was true to boot. Miss Sato took a deep breath, then exhaled, before smiling at him.

"I'd really appreciate that, Mr. Takahashi," she said, smiling sincerely. His hormones kicked in again, like they did at least once a week during his meeting with his coworker, mostly calling him the biggest idiot in the entire world. He could have had a succubus girlfriend if he had made a move, said anything that mentioned he was attracted to her brain and personality as much as he was to her. Her smile, even under the glasses and baggy clothes and pony tail, was one of the most gorgeous things he had ever seen.

He told that part of himself to shut up, and focused on the happy feelings he got from making someone who always felt rejected or objectified feel safe in their own skin. The friend zone was just fine.

A/N: So here it is. The first non-M-rated story in this fandom. Not going to lie, this was me figuring out how a relationship with a succubus like Sakie would even work, so there will be a lot of fluff. This will come to three parts at the moment, and I hope you enjoy and help me to fill out this page with lots of glorious stories.

Peace and Love,

thecagedsong


	2. 2 Make her Comfortable

Saki recovered from her embarrassment, eventually. They kept meeting on weekends when both of them were free. They did everything from puzzling out the details of demi-biology to discussing the latest finding from European labs, or even to figure out how to help various students that were having problems, demi or not.

Tetsuo Takahashi always felt that there was more he could be doing to help Sakie, and the first step was asking if he could refer to her by her first name when they were alone.

"You want to what?" she asked when he brought it up, blushing.

"Formalities aren't really necessary anymore, are they? Please call me Tetsuo," he said. He thought that by being informal, he would be able to get used to her presence faster, one of his theories involved decreased attraction over long periods of time. That would spell good things for her dream of a normal family, and constant exposure to something would always result in the law of diminishing returns. And having her refer to him casually would cement this friendship and ability to rely on him. This needed to happen before any other steps could be taken to help her interact semi-normally with half of the population.

She hesitated, but then nodded with a blush, "Alright Tetsuo, you may call me Sakie then."

As soon as she said his given name, he realized he was far from receiving diminished returns from her. It was like her voice was caressing his face, and her blush wasn't the wild panicked one she always had on when they first started meeting, it was a demure, shy blush, where she checked to see if she was being too forward by looking up through her eyelashes. She could not know how erotic that was.

As was usual when he started to have too inappropriate thoughts towards Sakie, he smiled and slitted his eyes, using the small visual break to think about anything at all that could possibly attract—er, distract him. What did they usually talk about again?

"Great, now that that's out of the way, my friend at the university sent back some math about what he discovered on the biochemical ratios for vampires, want to look them over with me."

"Sure! How did he figure out how to get around the vampire skin problem?"

And with that, he was able to open his eyes fully again and look at his computer for the report. See, he could handle it. Tetsuo started talking about their idea of extracting blood from the inside of the vampire's mouth to get around the thicker skin. He also had some ideas about why their hair color genetically changed from what was possible in their parent's gene pool, involving the biological divergence for blonde hair originally came as an advantage to peoples who had less access to sunlight.

Usually once they went into safe science and math territory, he could go back to treating her like an intellectual equal instead of a possible romantic, and very erotic partner, but for some reason, it was a lot harder that day. Sakkie didn't use his name again until she said goodbye, but it rang in his head the whole time. Maybe the aphrodisiac effect actually grew stronger with time, a sort of chemical increase and reaction due to the effect not being sated.

If that theory was true, he was in for an adventure.

Step two was getting her more comfortable with more men. Controlled men of course, male peers that could respect her as a person. Because did you know she was insanely smart? Her degree wasn't actually in teaching, teaching was a minor emphasis. Her real work was a double degree in engineering and mathematics, something about math being sexless. The government, in an attempt to make her advanced schooling as comfortable as possible for her, encouraged the college to allow her as many personally mentored classes as they could accommodate.

It was like once you got through Sakie's five layers of inexperience, embarrassment, shyness, awkwardness, and panic, you discovered a mind dedicated to the pursuit of learning, that just happened to have already learned it all. If you asked her about it, it was always the same story. Making friends was hard, she didn't have to worry as much in a high school, and what else was she going to do. She lost contact with most of her mentors at college, since she had gone to school three hours away from where she was currently living.

Turns out not many high schools had wanted to hire a succubus, but one that had three demi students already decided it was worth the risk, especially with her resume. That being said, it was clear that to help her grow, she would need more solid male friendships based on respect rather than sexual desire, and she had a lot to be respectful of. Now he just had to bring up the topic, and he decided to mention it one Saturday on her way out the door.

"Hey, would you mind coming with me to meet a friend next weekend instead of coming here? He's the one that has been investigating Dulahan wormhole possibilities," Tetsuo chuckled to himself, "He's been asking to meet you ever since you dared correct his math and unbalance his equation."

"Oh," Sakie blushed, "Er, um, at the university?"

"Yes, but don't let a university job fool you, he's a huge werido who lives in a different reality most of the time," Tetsuo comforted.

Sakie thought it over. They would have to take the first train to the university, then the last train, which could be a huge inconvenience. Of course, she could agree to meet him there, then spend all her time in the university library, which might have more information on the Helsberg analysis of tetragonic figures than she had access to on her own. She had even been emailing her old mentor, who had a friend at the university that Sakie had been wanting to meet and congratulate for their work on connecting subspace particle mathematics to astronomical variants. Sakie could make a full day of it, with some time set apart to spend with Tetsuo and his friend. Sakie would miss her Friday night alcohol binge, but she wasn't enough of an alcoholic to make it an actual factor in her decision.

"Okay," she finally said with a smile, watching his face light up. "But I'm going to have to meet you there. What time?"

"I'll text you when my friend is free," he said. His plan was working.

*****Saturday at 10:10

"Hello old friend," Soma said, walking down the staircase to give him a handshake, face in that forever present pleasant expression.

"Soma," Tetsuo greeted back, "long time no see."

"But plenty of email," he replied, "Now where is this mathematician that added another complication my spacial vortex problem?"

Tetsuo pulled out his phone, glancing down worriedly as he still hadn't received a confirmation text from her.

"I'm not sure, she said she'd be here and confirmed last night. I hope something didn't happen to her…" Oh shoot. She probably had hesitated because the trains were busy this time of day, what if she got into some sort of problem because he asked her to come? Goes to show even someone who had tried his best to pay attention to demi needs made mistakes. He was about to call her when her laugh rang through the hall of the physic's building, drawing all eyes to her as she walked in next to another professor.

She immediately threw her hands over her mouth to stifle the noise, her track suit partially unzipped but otherwise looking normal. Tetsuo looked over to see Soma's reaction, and the usual expression had broken, awe in place. Tetsuo stepped on his foot, watched him pull himself together, then waved his arm to let Sakie know where he was.

She pointed to him and both her and her companion headed their direction.

"Wow, you weren't kidding about the succubus part," Soma muttered, straightening his tie. Tetsuo glared, and Soma threw up his hands, "I know, what she needs is male peers that will respect her as a person and any indication of her succubus nature besides respect will result in decapitation."

Tetsuo smiled, trusting his friend, and as the pair approached he greeted, "Hello Sakie, I was worried you had trouble getting here. I'm glad it worked out," Tetsuo said. She smiled and nodded, so he gestured to his friend, "This is the friend whose math you corrected, Soma. Soma, this is your mathematical genius, Ms. Sato."

Soma burst in immediately after the introduction, "It's a pleasure to meet you. Now, may I suggest in lieu of the traditional handshake between peers, we adopt the Herosanguine Martian introduction? You place your hand over your heart across your body, then let it drift out and down, like so," he then demonstrated. Sakie laughed again and copied him, as did her companion, "It means 'I look forward to all that our meeting will bring'."

"Then it is a very appropriate gesture," Sakie said, glancing at Tetsuo for confirmation. He nodded, letting her know she was doing well. She took a step to the side and gestured to her companion, a tall man with a lean physique and messy, graying hair. "This is Dr. Matsumori, a friend of my mentor in the engineering department here."

"Ah! I know you," Soma said, reaching forward for a handshake, "you recently published on the tetragram connection between subspace and outer space."

"It is nice to be known by someone as cutting edge as you, Dr. Soma. I will admit that your work on wormhole properties helped me understand the structural shape enough to make the connection," the man admitted.

"Well, I wasn't expecting to be the odd man out here, but as a biologist among theorists, I suppose it can't be helped," Tetsuo said with a smile.

"Oh no! Of course you belong here just as much!" Sakie was quick to assure him.

"Indeed, I am the one intruding," Dr. Matsumori said with a bow of apology, "I was enjoying the company of Ms. Sato here so much, I offered to walk her to the physics building, remembering how confusing the maps are. I'll be taking my leave now." Before he left he turned to Sakie and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Remember my offer now, promise to think it over?"

Sakie smiled, but stepped back, letting his hand drop, "I promise to consider it."

With a nod to the other two men, both with mouths dropped open, he left towards the door he arrived through.

"How could he touch you?" Tetsuo asked, amazed, with a slight feeling of jealousy. Of course, the Dr. could have been faking composure like he himself had done so many times, but he didn't see any tells.

"He's gay," she said with a shake of her head and a smile, "Now I know why my mentor was so insistent on meeting with him. She never told me, but it was a pleasant surprise. I can't say I'm used to being touched so casually though, his parting threw me for a moment." She turned back to Soma, "So, er, sorry about that. I really meant to be here sooner, but that meeting ran over and I hope you haven't been waiting long."

"Not at all," Soma assured, "I was ten minutes late myself, the elevators had mysteriously broken and I had to take the stairs. Let's go find an empty classroom for the three of us to chat and look at our work in."

Soma led the way to the first floor classrooms in the building, and Tetsuo held back to walk with Sakie, who embarrassedly zipped up her jacket all the way, not having noticed it before.

"Hey, what offer was he talking about back there? He wasn't trying to talk you away from the high school, was he?" Tetsuo joked.

She shook her head, embarrassed, "He was actually offering to be my Phd. Advisor if I wanted to work on furthering my own education while working as a teacher. He was impressed with my commentary on his work. I couldn't though, not only does teaching already take up most of my time, but I couldn't afford it. Not to mention I wouldn't know what to focus on, how to attend classes at the university, and I'm done with the rumors that sprout around me when I'm in school."

"What rumors?" Tetsuo asked.

"Oh, that I slept with the professor for my grade," she said casually, not looking at him. He saw red in that moment, knowing that those rumors hurt her more than she would ever let anyone know.

"Over here," Soma called from down the hall, pointing to a door. They followed and Soma held the door open for them. Soma's eyes followed Sakie through the door, and Tetsuo made sure to step on his foot on the way past. As soon as the three of them were in the room he launched into a critique of Soma's theory, with Sakie backing him, and they spent the next four hours discussing the merits of various formulas, only taking a break to order one of Soma's grad students to fetch them food.

"As much as I would love to continue this, I'm afraid I have a meeting with a doctorial candidate about their research," Soma finally broke off, "It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Sato, and now that I have had the chance to pick at that brain of yours, know that you are welcome to correct my math any time. Though do not always expect to be correct."

With a bow, he excused himself, leaving Tetsuo and Sakie in the classroom with three whiteboards full of equations.

"That was enjoyable," Sakie commented, leaning her head on her hand.

"See, I'm not the only male you can have a successful friendship with," he teased.

"I suppose. He was very respectful, thank you for warning him," she said. He shrugged.

"He would have treated you the same had you come to an academic conference here and challenged him on his work," Tetsuo said, though he wasn't sure. Soma hadn't expressed interest in women while Tetsuo was his roommate, everyone had always joked that physics was his one true love, but he had expressed interest in Sakie. Of course, Soma still would have been respectful about it, but if it wasn't for Tetsuo's descriptions of Sakie's insecurities, the professor might not have left without asking her on a date. For some reason that irritated him, but then Sakie smiled and thanked him for introducing them, which made everything worth it.

From then on, Sakie and Soma exchanged emails, and Sakie was kept up in the world of current mathematics and engineering, as well as theoretical physics and biology. When she had first decided to become a teacher, she had taken a step away from the world of higher learning, especially after she the disciplinary committee she had had to attend before she graduated to solve some of the rumors that she had used her aphrodisiac affect on her professors. As the most embarrassing moment of her life, she had been more than willing to leave that world behind.

It turns out she had missed the math and the challenge to her brain. While before she had spent her extra time on the school campus cleaning her classroom and developing a thousand new metaphors to explain concepts to her students, now she spent it reading up on American engineering publications with Soma's university credentials. Of course, the students will forever whisper about the time she had a student complete a problem on the board, get it wrong, and move to correct him before freezing on the spot. Rumor had it students were trying to get her attention for a full minute before a girl reached out to touch her and she snapped, yelling and snatching the marker from a dazed Mamoru.

Suddenly Sakie was at the board adding several different equations next to Mamoru's mistake and muttering to herself, randomly bursting out into swearing when she had to violently erase something. Everyone watched in awe and fear, while some of the smarter students, including Machi and Himari, were typing her equations into their phones to figure out what she was doing, they were coming up blank. After eight minutes of rapid writing, screeching at anyone who tried to approach the board, she boxed the answer, two complex differential equations that the students hadn't seen before, and fell to her knees, panting.

"Miss Sato?" Himari asked carefully, "Are you alright? We already sent someone to get the nurse."

Sakie sat up and stretched her arms and back, then stood and faced her class, "Sorry about that. There is no need to panic. An important math lesson is that most concepts are difficult until they click, like a person trying a thousand keys to figure out which one fits in the lock. Once you figure out the exact key to fit it into the lock, you understand the concept and can apply it elsewhere. Have any of you experienced this while learning?"

A couple of the students nodded and she clapped.

"Yes, and when your mind says something clicks, you should prove it to your mind right away. Sometimes your brain can tell you a concept works, but if you wait too long to try it out, your brain will move on to trying a different key and you're back where you started. As budding mathematicians, engineers, scientists, and whatever else you want to be, when inspiration hits, run with it as fast as you can. That's what I was doing on the board, and I'm sorry if I frightened any of you. Allow me to take a couple of pictures of my work, then we will continue on with the lesson."

She took out her phone and started snapping pictures, to be duplicated later as a check on her math. She may have just solved the equation for the temporal possibility where a human, or more specifically, a vampire reflection would not show up in mirrors, and why that may have changed over time. All because Mamoru applied a calculous action on a trigometric problem, which was of course wrong, but by applying a physical, gravitational property to light, using a trigonomic property, the results to her equation would make sense.

She took her pictures and was about to erase the board when the door flung open.

"Sakie! Are you okay?" Tetsuo demanded, rushing into the room, a fluttery student behind him.

"Mr. Takahashi!" Sakie said, dropping the eraser and stepping away from the board. The students watched with rapt attention. The teachers stared at each other, Tetsuo breathing hard. The out-of-breath student broke the silence.

"I'm sorry Ms. Sato," she said, nearly sobbing, "But you weren't responding to anyone, and no one knew what you were doing on the board, I was going to get the nurse, but everyone knows Mr. Takahashi is better with demi-humans and I thought it might have been a succubus thing. I'm sorry!" The girl was on the verge of tears, so Sakie leaned down and put a hand on her shoulder. As usual with females, her touch was simply very distracting, but in a way that would convince the female to trust her.

"No, you did the right thing Mai, I'm happy to know I have capable students who can think on their feet. I apologize for acting so strangely, I've had a complex math problem on my mind for weeks and when I figured it out I disrupted the class. Please accept my apologies."

Mai smiled at her beautiful teacher and nodded. Sakie let the student go and she returned to her seat. She stood up straight and saw Tetsuo reading her work, eyebrows rising.

"Holy Hell," he said, "You did it. Vampire skin properties do contain enough of those elements…and it accounts both for the makeup of eighteenth century mirrors and if the cellular structure…why needles don't work…proteins from various blood sources could account for the constant…straight sunlight might cause an irritant with that structure…"

"How about I send you the pictures during break and we can get the equation up somewhere more permanent for adjustment," she offered, feeling a rush of pleasure, both at stunning him and her own mathematical prowess. He turned to her with sheer adoration, taking her breath away. No one had stared at her without her touching them…ever.

Hikari chose that moment to burst into the burst into the classroom with the same question.

"Is everyone okay?" Hikari yelled, then raised one eyebrow at the scene.

"Hikari," Sakie replied, disapproving, "what are you doing out of class?"

"Well…" she started, pulling her arms behind her back, "Mai and Mr. Takahashi ran past Mori, who was going to the bathroom, and he told me when he past the two of them running in a hurry to this classroom, I knew it had to be a demi in trouble. Either you or Machi, and I knew Himari is in this class too, and she gets panicked really easily. The longer I sat there, the more it killed me not to know, so I ran here as fast as I could, only to see you and Teach making goo goo eyes at each other. You should be more careful about starting a panic, you know."

Tetsuo slapped a hand to his forehead and groaned, "Back to class," he told her, "now."

"Fine," she sighed, dragging herself towards the door, "See if I ever run to save you again." She paused just before she vanished from view, "Machi, Sis, I expect a full report on all the juicy details." She ran then, before Tetsuo had to chase her out.

"I'll take photos as well, as a back up," Tetsuo said, "I suppose I'd better get back to my class. I left them in the middle of a worksheet, but I don't any of them wandering the halls in a panic either." He glanced around the room then once more at Sakie, "You are okay, aren't you?"

"Just a burst of inspiration," she assured him, blushing. He nodded, used his phone to snap some pictures, then left.

Oh yes, she missed math.

"Will you be able tell us what that problem was for?" one of her students asked as she erased the board.

"You know what? When you're a senior at the top of your class, I'll explain it to you. But only if you make it as the top…lets say five students in math. How does that sound?" she smiled as students started whispering to each other, making plans to reach that goal. "Now Mamoru…"

 **A/N: Hey everyone, here is the next chapter! Wasn't this week's episode just the cutest? I wanted to thank everyone who reviewed on the last chapter, and hope you enjoyed chapter two. I love Hikari by the way,**

 **thecagedsong**


	3. 3 Make it official

Chapter 3

Tetsuo's plan worked better than he could have ever imagined. He found himself staying at school later than usual to talk with Sakie about various kinds of research, not just on weekends, and she loosened up around the male staff. Not to the point of forgetting herself and accidentally touching one of them, but willing to stick around and make conversation after school meetings and during breaks. And compared to how she was when she first arrived, her confidence had grown immensely. (Well, she was still the most timid teacher at the school, and apologized more than the rest of the staff put together, but she only spazzed out once a week instead of once a day, which was a huge improvement in everyone's book).

She even stayed and talked with other teachers after an assembly when he had to leave for a doctor's appointment, he was so proud of her.

Of course, it wasn't until he found himself meeting with Ugaki again that the summary of all these feelings meant something to him.

***Demi******

"I see you've been taking care of your demis," Ugaki said as they stared out over the school together.

"I'll be sure to help Miss Noratu as much as I can," Tetsuo confirmed, thinking about the fifteen-year-old demi Ugaki had brought. She was a succubus who had been getting into trouble at her old school, so Ugaki recommended to her parents that she transfer here where the school was better prepared to handle demi students. Hikari had swept Noratu up in a daze of information and excitement as soon as they had been introduced. The men had thought about trying to follow them, before deciding Noratu was in good hands, and Sakie was following them, making sure to give out tips specific to succubi.

"I trust you and Sakie will do just that," he said. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen Sakie this happy."

"Yeah," Tetsuo said, a little dreamily, "She's learned how to come enough out of her shell to be comfortable in her skin, without triggering her aphrodisiac effect. Though sometimes I swear it grows stronger everyday." He laughed a little, but noticed that Ugaki didn't join in, which made him stop abruptly. That's right, Sakie mentioned that this man was like her father, maybe he didn't appreciate jokes about her aphrodisiac effect.

Of course, that reminded him that this was the man who had encouraged Sakie to use her aphrodisiac effect on him. Which left him feeling really weird.

"Are you aware of succubus effects growing with time?" Tetsuo asked awkwardly as the man continued to analyze him.

"No, in my experience, they tend to hit a stride then stay the same for their lives, though some succubus effects are stronger than others. Over time I've learned how to keep my wits about me, but the effect doesn't go away, nor does it increase. Though it isn't impossible that the more Sakie feels confident in herself, the less able she is to hide her effect."

"Hmm," Tetsuo said, looking back and re-evaluating his experiences with Sakie with the new information.

"I meet with Sakie once every three months to check up on her," Ugaki said, pulling his attention back to the conversation, "and lately I've been calling her more often to get up dates on her love life. You are aware that she is in nearly love with you, correct?"

Tetsuo's brain short-circuited. It tried to apply the information to his experiences with Sakie, then shut down completely.

"Oh, um…she mentioned that in the beginning of our friendship she was attracted to me because I didn't seem attracted to her. But then she said that she backed off when she realized I wasn't responding out of respect for her. I assumed her interest tapered…after…that…" The old man was laughing at him. Full blown gwuaffing.

"Every week from her it's 'no I didn't use my effect, at least I didn't try to, but he complimented me!' and 'Guess what Tetsuo showed me today!' and my personal favorite, 'don't you dare tell him about my feelings, you meddling old man'. And here you are, asking me why you feel like jumping her even dressed like she does, and I don't think I've seen anything this entertaining in years."

His laughter settled down to a chuckle as Tetsuo struggled to turn his brain back on, and Ugaki stood up as they heard the demi-girls returning.

"You know son, it is possible to fall in love, not lust, with a succubus. You know better than anyone who she is underneath her nature, so don't be afraid to let both of you be happy."

Hikari dragged Noratu through the door talking about their new awesome plans to get ice cream after school and Sakie agreed that it was a wonderful idea. Tetsuo turned to look at his colleague, his friend, with new eyes, and now that he was looking for it, he saw her slight flush as not embarrassment, but attraction, and the fiddling with her hair not as being uncomfortable, but excitedly nervous.

Ugaki chuckled as he watched them, and Sakie turned her glare on him, "Thanks for the most entertaining conversation I've had in a while." He said, tipping his hat.

*********That Saturday

He paced around his classroom, tugging at his hair. Though sometimes he and Sakie went to the university, usually they met on Saturdays in his classroom to talk upper level academia. And unlike three weeks ago when Soma came to see their work on vampire reflections in the eighteenth century, they were going to meet alone. Too bad he still had zero things worked out in his head.

Was he attracted to Sakie?

Hell yes!

Was it more than simply physical attraction?

He thought about her flushed face as she solved equations, and the way she listened and understood him as he babbled crazy theories about demis and magic and Amazonian frogs. He thought about how protective he was of her when they were with other men, and how even if they showed the utmost respect he still felt irritated. How she leaned forward in their discussions, clutching a pillow as she defended her position logically. How she worked with her students through problems, math, demi, or otherwise. Seemed like that answer was a yes too.

Was Sakie attracted to him?

For some unknown reason, that also seemed to be a yes, if Ugaki was to be believed. And since Sakie had glared at Ugaki as though accusing him of spilling her secret, he was probably reliable. Plus she had admitted to it all those months ago, so it definitely wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

Would it be detrimental to her growth if he did attempt to start a romantic relationship?

This was the sketchiest one so far. Part of her attraction to him, by her own admission, was the novelty of a relationship not founded on her aphrodisiac effect. But now she had other male relationships that were also founded upon who she was rather than how she affected them, and she was still "nearly in love" with him, was is simply novelty anymore. What did that even mean anyway? It probably meant that she had some strange pedestal-like idea of him, though how she got that, he didn't know. Of course, her dream, as a self-proclaimed romantic, was to fall in love and settle down with someone, which meant she was going to start dating someone eventually if she wanted to achieve that. If he, who genuinely cared about her, was her first relationship at the very least, it would set high standards of healthy relationships for everything to come. (He ignored the bite of jealousy that came with her settling down with someone else.) So…no, for this question.

So if he wanted to start a relationship with her, and she wanted to start a relationship with him, and it would benefit them both, there was literally no downside, except the usual danger that came with any relationship. There was only one question left that needed answering.

How the hell did he start a romantic relationship with her?

Zero. Zilch. Nada. No ideas came to him. He didn't have very many relationships before this, one in high school and three in college. Two of those left him when he didn't pay enough attention to them, one he broke off because she was too clingy and high maintenance, and the last one was broken off by mutual agreement when she went to attend grad school in the States. He remembered just…getting the hint that they liked him and asking them out. He dressed nicer today than he usually did, though gave up on his hair like always, but that was as far as he got. The two of them did teach high schoolers all day, maybe he should just confess that he liked everything about her and ask if they could go out. She would set the pace of course…

"Tetsuo!" Sakie said, walking into the room, holding a tubberware container, "Sorry I'm late, I was up last night making these and slept through my usual train. Have some!" and she held out a container of macaroons. Three different flavors, and she was smiling. He gulped and tried to control his blush. She should have come later; he wasn't ready for this! Sakie was just too cute!

"Er," he cast his mind for something to say, "Thank you," he said, taking a yellow one. "Any special reason you made these?"

Sakie sat down on the couch like usual, and placed the container on the table between them, "Not really," she said, "this is Ugaki's wife's recipe though, something she taught me to make in college. I guess seeing him this week made me crave them. Unless Ugaki said something stupid, then these are an apology about that. Do you like sweets?" She tilted her head as she asked.

"Yes, actually," he said, taking a bite of the treat, "and while I usually enjoy chocolate more, these are really good. I might have a new favorite."

"How is Miss Noratu doing in your class?" Sakie asked.

He shrugged, "According to Hikari, she's super cool and they are all going to karaoke this weekend with some others from school. I'm pretty sure Hikari has told everyone at least once about the rules with her new friend, most people three times."

Sakie laughed, "Of course she has. Hikari has everyone's back. And since Noratu isn't the siren breed of succubus, karaoke should be a wonderful thing. Miss Nortaru's disposition seems a bit more like Machi though, don't you agree? Eager to please and fit in, along with a desire to excel and a genuine love of learning?"

Tetsuo nodded, "I see your argument. She'll go far, once she learns how to be appreciated for her personality and intellect instead of her aphrodisiac effect." Tetsuo, usually the kind of person to go in without a plan of action, saw his chance, "You've come far after all."

"What do you mean?" she asked, nibbling on a cookie. Dang she was attractive.

"Just that, you've always striven to be acknowledged for yourself rather than your nature, and you excelled in your studies. Now that you've forced yourself out of your comfort zone and worked on expanding your relationships, you have several successful male friendships and are working on jointly publishing an article in an academic journal with one of those friends. I'd say you've accomplished a lot, and you're only twenty-five."

"Oh," she said, eyes going wide, and blushing, "I…I guess when you put it like that. I have been doing well, haven't I?"

"Of course, working with you is fantastic," he confirmed. She was blushing some more, and he should probably cool it on the compliments before she became a mess. Of course he didn't know where to go from there. This time though, she used academic speak to escape a potentially embarrassing situation. She started asking him about the possibility of cells producing a certain atomic structure that would refract light a certain way, and they worked on the article they were submitting for review.

Of course, before they did that, they would have to recreate an eighteenth century mirror and trick Hikari into looking in it lit by candle light, but that was next week's problem. First they needed to make sure their math and chemistry was sound. What was particularly fun about this article was that it literally needed a mathematician familiar with physics and a biologist to come to their conclusions. Along with a lot of wild theories and imagination.

When they exhausted one topic for the day, before she could propose another flaw in their reasoning they would need to work on, Tetsuo suggested they go for a walk. It was a nice day, after all, and they both could use a short break.

She looked startled by the abrupt suggestion, but agreed. He grabbed his keys to lock up the classroom and they headed out. Without the whiteboard there to draw their minds to math and science, he asked her about she did on weekends before she started hanging out with him.

"Hmm," she hummed, trying to remember. Tetsuo had become such an important part of her weekend routine, it didn't feel like there was a time before him. "Well, I only started at the school a month before we first met up, and before that I was job searching. I suppose I would spend the weekends nursing Friday's hangover, and walking around the woods for the peace of it. I still go hiking Sunday afternoons."

"You go out drinking?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

"No no no, of course not," she hurriedly assured him, "No, that would be a disaster. I usually drink alone and play Sims or make fun of old American TV shows. After keeping to myself all week, making sure not to move certain ways, say certain things, and staying dressed in these dreadful clothes, I let myself feel really free. No inhibitions and no cares about how I act. It's a balance of two extremes, but it works for me."

He laughed, trying to imagine her drunk. Sakie's words would slur and she'd cry a lot, jumping from one mood to another. He was about to mention that he'd like to see that, but stopped himself, knowing he had to take things slower with her.

"What did you do on weekends?" she huffed, "I bet you had just as much of a life as I did before we met properly."

Tetsuo shrugged, "I would spend Saturdays…well, doing demi research during that month from when I first met you until I met you properly. Hikari had found my classroom and gave me a lot of opportunities to study vampires. Before that…I would spend some weekends at the university with Soma and a couple of other old friends, others would be spent with my mother and sister in Nagi. Sometimes I would get together with a buddy and go rock climbing."

"You rock climb?" she asked. He nodded, flexing his arms a bit.

"My undergrad research wasn't able to be on demis, so I focused on diagraming the realities of plants recorded in folklore to have magical properties. I picked up rock climbing along the way to get to some of the cliff-side plants, and I never really stopped. Of course, now I get stuck with all the heavy lifting at the school," he joked. She chuckled.

"I hope you haven't giving up rock climbing to spend time with me," she teased, and he gulped, trying not to focus on how that tone of voice made him feel.

"Nah, I just do it Sunday afternoons now, instead of Saturdays. The buddy I go climbing with, his wife likes this schedule better too, so everyone wins."

They found a good place to watch the waves, a good turning point away from the school, and popped open the macaroon box again. Tetsuo had been racking his brain to figure out how to bring it up, how to say what he felt, before just deciding to go for it. With the elements as he listed them, this could only turn out good, so long as he let her set the pace.

"So, Ugaki was telling me something interesting the other day," he brought up. She inhaled sharply, then tried to cover it up with some awkward fidgeting.

"Oh? Something about his work with demi's I hope," she said, hands clenching and looking just about everywhere except at him.

He smirked a bit, "Actually it was about you."

She immediately straightened, "What did he say? That bastard. Look, he's over protective and meddlesome and swore he wouldn't tell a soul! Don't believe his lies, nothing happened in Okinawa, everything is a joke, and I have enough blackmail on him to get his wife to put him in the dog house for three months."

He was laughing at her rant, and while a part of him wanted to retreat when she said not to believe Ugaki, the majority wanted her even more. He changed his tactic a bit though. She would die if even for a second she thought he knew about her attraction to him and he didn't have any for her. He would have to admit first.

"Relax, it was nothing bad," he assured her, "Though I am interested in what happened in Okinawa."

"Nothing happened, that's the point," she said forcefully. He laughed and held up his free hand.

"Alright, I won't press, though I hope you'll tell me one day at least what Ugaki thinks happened in Okinawa. Nah, he said something more interesting."

"Are you going to tell me, or are we going to keep playing twenty questions?"

"I was always rather good at twenty questions," he mused.

"Tet-su-o," she whined.

"Alright," he said, smiling to hide his nerves, "he reminded me that it was possible for someone to fall in love, not lust, with a succubus, and that the biology teacher and the succubus in question both deserved to be happy."

She blushed and kept looking at the waves, and he waited for her to respond. Every part of him was screaming that he had made a terrible mistake, Ugaki was a liar, and he had just ruined everything, but he couldn't let it show.

"Um," she said, allowing him to focus on her and not his doubts, "In this conversation, he probably mentioned that I still have that enormous crush on you, didn't he?"

And whiplash again, he wanted to touch her, to comfort her, and assure her that he cared for her. But he had always been king of self control.

"He may have mentioned something about it," Tetsuo admitted, "But only after I admitted that I thought your aphrodisiac effect was getting stronger because it seemed like every second of the day I was attracted to you, and not just when you triggered it. He laughed at me for a long time. Apparently no, your effect doesn't grow stronger with time, and I was an idiot for not realizing that it was me caring for you more and more without your effect that had changed."

"Oh," she said in a small voice, "that's…reassuring. I suppose."

They sat in silence for a while, both digesting their macaroons and conversation.

"So," Sakie said after a while, smiling up at him, "Where do we go from here?"

"I'm going to let you decide that," he said, smiling down at her, "This is your first relationship, and as a succubus you don't really get the option of hand holding and forehead kisses stages. You take all the steps forward, and I let you know when those steps forward will head straight to sex if you don't stop. Then you take another step forward or you step back. Does that sound fair?"

"More than" she said with a smile. "Can I start now?"

"Sure," he said. She reached up and pulled her hair loose, letting it tumble down her back.

"Just this for now," she said, running her fingers through her hair. He watched her, smiling, thinking how wonderful it was to see her relax. This next step was going to be a fun one.

A/N Hello folks. Been a while. I got distracted by some Legend of Zelda fanfiction, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Decided to finish this now, and then a have a couple of relationship shorts. Expect the next chapter to be up tomorrow and this to be all complete. Please review!

thecagedsong


	4. 4 Meeting the family

Meeting the family

"So, the reason I haven't been back to see my family in Nagi is that they had sort of…banished me until I had a girlfriend. Since you're my girlfriend, would you mind coming to visit them with me next weekend? We have the extra day off," he asked hopefully. He really missed his mom's okonomiyaki.

"You wa-want me to come visit your family?" she asked, blushing, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. Sakie had made it a habit to let her hair down on their weekend 'dates'. Most of it was what they normally did, debate recent trends in science, the unexplored possibilities of demi biology and abilities, and consulted each other on how certain students were doing, but they always ended with something more like a real date. A walk, a hike, dinner, a movie, something where they were able to talk about themselves and not work. He could handle her hair down, almost normally. And he knew how to get himself out of her aphrodisiac when needed.

"Yeah, if you're comfortable with that, I would really enjoy it." he said.

"Um, okay," she said shyly, "I'll clear my schedule. Where and when should we meet?"

And so they made plans. Sakie was nervous, but since Tetsuo's dad had passed away years before, at least she could hide her succubus nature better. They had talked quite a bit about their families, and she knew that his sister was a nurse and his mother was a gardener for a local tourist attraction in Nagi, and while he loved them, they were very persistent. She worried for a while over the fact that she would be meeting her boyfriend's parents dressed in track suits, but better than meeting them and having their son not be able to talk because he was busy being attracted to her. She also fussed over a gift to bring them. Sakie, as a person, would want beer, but that might not send the right message. Finally, she settled on making macaroons, hoping that macaroons would be lucky for her once again.

Tetsuo, for his part, had already called and given his family a heads up about Sakie's abilities, and told them to be completely respectful. His mother, a hold over from when demis were…less accepted by society, had already screeched to him about how inappropriate it was for him to be under the witch's spell, until he told her that they hadn't had sex yet. That quieted her enough to extract a promise of civility and welcoming. His sister, Sakura, had simply scolded him for taking so long to bring her to meet them (they had been dating only a month!). Her promise of civility was given right off the bat, though he trusted it less. Like him, Sakura had a rather ferocious protective streak, and if she thought Sakie was controlling him at all, his sister wouldn't be afraid to go to bat. He didn't worry too much though, after all, how could they not like her? And his mom promised to make her okonomiyaki, so this weekend was going to go well.

They met for the 6 AM train to Nagi, and he accidentally fell asleep on the way there. His dream, which was consisting of him climbing up cliff faces and finding ruined cities at the top was interrupted by his girlfriend appearing as an empress in the lost city, wearing an old fashioned imperial gown, with clearly nothing underneath. She approached him and started kissing and undressing him, before he was jerked awake.

He looked down to see Sakie blushing and leaning away from him, but his shoulder felt warmer. A couple of other people on the train had woken up and were glancing around fugitively.

"Guess I should have gone to bed earlier last night," Sakie said, embarrassed.

"No problem," he said, still a bit flustered from the dream, of feeling her hands on his chest, and…he needed to stop that train of thought, "Uh…I still say that effect is purely hormonal, not psychic." She puffed up.

"Look, we know vampires are able to take foreign blood into their system and use the interacting proteins, which should kill them, to create a reinforced shell on the surface of the epidural, snow women use negative emotions to push their temperatures to the extreme cold, Dulahans have a legit wormhole connecting their head and body, and you're saying that succubi, the demi that has the most effect over other people, is nothing more than an excess of hormones." She finished her last sentence with a shake of her head. "It has to be something stronger than that. I can't sleep in apartment buildings because of that effect, I'd hear about it from neighbors in all directions."

"Apartment buildings circulate air. Your other effect is pheromone based, why shouldn't this one be?" He argued back.

"If it wasn't partly psychological, then simply dressing down wouldn't change the amount of pheromones I release and don't give me the 'your body takes skin exposure as a catalyst', we both know I can trigger through action even if I am dressed down by acting a certain way. Plus, there is no biological advantage that would select for pheromone release while succubi sleep. If anything, it puts them in more danger. There is probably a stronger sense of psychic powers that I could develop that would be advantageous, but people forgot the skill when succubi stopped forming covens."

"So intent _and_ skin exposure," he said with a shrug, "Doesn't mean your psychic. More sex is the evolutionary advantageous. There would have to be significant differences in the brains of those attracted to females and those attracted to males for your theory to be valid, which you have yet to prove."

"Just wait until I get those MRI results back from Dr. Santos, then we'll see who needs to prove what," she challenged, and everything was back to normal.

Though, like he usually did, he set aside the fact that Sakie was comfortable enough to sleep on him as important information for later. It made him feel giddy inside.

"This place is beautiful," Sakie said as they arrived, "Did you really grow up here?" It was an ocean-side town with a strong tourist attraction in the summer. Since it was fall, the place was starting to die down. She glanced around the train station, then let her hair down, making Tetsuo smile before he answered her question.

"Yep, though I lived in a different house than where we are going to be staying. My mom wanted to live closer to the beach to preform tai chi with the ocean in the mornings. I don't complain."

"Big brother!" a voice called, and Tetsuo smiled as his sister waved them off the train platform. Both of them grabbed their weekend bags and headed to meet her. When Sakura jumped on Sakie in a hug, it became clear that Sakura was going to treat his girlfriend how she wanted to. Surprisingly, Sakie didn't flinch away from her touch, and accepted the hug. He supposed Hikari and Saccubae had gotten into the habit of touching her, and it was probably only a problem with men.

"Hey, so nice to meet you, I'm Sakura, this guy's sister. Welcome to our little town," she said, pulling away from the hug. Sakie smiled.

"I'm happy to meet you as well. Your town is lovely," Sakie said. Sakura immediately stepped back and started looking her up and down, and Sakie stiffened, tugging at her jacket.

"Hmm, you dress like a slob, but I suppose you can be excused for that. You're polite, which Mom will like, but you don't look like you speak your mind much, which is going to be a problem when Mom starts walking over you. Looking closer, I can see why people see you as attractive, but it's not showing too much right now, except for your bust size of course."

"Sakura!" Tetsuo demanded, "You promised to be civil. Judging her on her looks at first meeting isn't being civil."

"Don't worry," Sakura waved a hand at him, "I won't chase her off, heaven knows it took forever to get you to bring home one girl, I'm not going to chance her dumping you and leaving you single forever. Trust me, letting her know what I think of her right off the bat is a major relief for her, now she doesn't have to wonder if I'm being polite for your sake and will turn around and threaten her as soon as you leave."

Tetsuo glanced as Sakie, to see her flushed and wringing her hands. "Pardon my incredibly rude sister," he said.

Sakie focused on him again, and her arms started flailing her protest, "No! It's alright. It is kind of nice to have someone be honest with me about what they see. I mean, not that I thought she would ever be mean, she's your sister! And—"

"Perfect!" Sakura cheered, throwing an arm around her shoulders, interrupting Sakie's babbling, "Then you won't mind playing twenty questions with me later when Tetsuo isn't around. Now let's get going, Mom's expecting us."

Sakura started walking Sakie deeper into town, leaving Sakie's luggage behind for Tetsuo to pick up, but he expected that from his sister. He watched for signs that Sakie was getting overwhelmed, but she seemed to catch onto Sakura's energy flow like a blood cell in a vein. Tetsuo was able to relax and focus on what memories Sakura was narrating, luckily she didn't pull out any particularly embarrassing ones yet.

"And here is our house. You'll be sharing a room with me, and Tetsuo goes back to his old room. You ready to meet Mom?"

Sakie wasn't given a chance to answer, just pushed through the garden gate as Sakura called out for her mother. He was really going to have to remind Sakura about the definition of civility. Sakie was trying to protest something about Tetsuo greeting his mother first, but was shot down and taken into the kitchen.

"Mother! This is Sakie Sato, Tetsuo's new girlfriend!" Sakura called, as Tetsuo came up behind them. His mother was eyeing an embarrassed Sakie, who was having trouble figuring out where to place her hands. He stepped around her and bent down to kiss his mother's cheek.

"I'm also back Mother, as Sakura seems to have forgotten," he said peaceably.

"Hmph, I tell you not to come back without a girlfriend, and you bring me a succubus coworker—"

"Mother!" Tetsuo interrupted, "Be civil. You will treat Sakie with the respect she deserves as a person. That is what you promised me."

Sakie wanted the ground to swallow her. His mom was tall, dignified, and it seemed prejudiced against succubi. Tetsuo and his mother were glaring at each other, and Sakura looked on like she was watching a sports match, so Sakie stepped in.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Takahashi? Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sato Sakie, and I am honored to be your guest." She bowed, surprising his mom, then straightened and pulled out a cookie container, "I hope you'll accept this gift from me, as a thank you for your generosity."

She offered the container and Mrs. Takahashi hesitated before accepting it. Sakura stepped around to look inside and when the colorful macaroons were revealed, she squealed.

"Ooo, macaroons, I haven't had those since my college trip to France. Thank you Sakie!"

Mrs. Takahashi deflated at the sight, and with a sigh told Tetsuo to put everyone's luggage away.

He nodded, but waited to catch Sakie's eye before leaving the room. He gave her a thumbs up and a smile, making her blush happily, before doing as his mother said.

"Soooo…now that Brother's gone, you ready to start?" Sakura asked, placing a tea set before the females in the living room. Sakie was confused for a second, then remembered her promise of twenty questions.

"Oh, uh, I suppose," she said. Mrs. Takahashi watched with judging eyes, but they weren't already decided like they had been before. It was more like…a re-evaluation.

"Great!" Sakura said, finishing pouring everyone tea. "So, first off, why my brother? You could literally have any guy you want with a touch of your hand, why did you pick my sci-fi obsessed brother?"

"Oh," Sakie said, realizing she should have expected this question. She thought back to the beginning of their relationship, smiling, "I suppose it was because he was so…respectful of me. You raised the most wonderful person I have ever met Mrs. Takahashi. He did his best to pretend that he wasn't effected by my aphrodisiac effect because he wanted me to feel comfortable around him. It took me a while to figure out that he cared more about what I had to say than what I looked like, and that impressed me. He cares so much about his students, and so much about science and how the world works, matching minds with him…I felt human. Normal."

"Hmm," Sakura said, and Sakie looked up, remembering that she had an audience, "You pass the first question. Congrats. Now, next question is what the hell is going on with my brother and demi-humans? This one I've been trying to figure out for years."

"Oh, ah," Sakie tried to think of a good answer, but was interrupted by Tetsuo coming around the corner.

"If you had listened to me even once, you could have figured it out," he said, "I only tried to explain it to you a thousand times."

They started bickering and Sakie smiled at the scene. It was just so…domestic. Family. It was wonderful. She fiddled with the end of her hair, kept down for the occasion, not to be put up until the train ride home.

The weekend continued like that. The siblings would bicker, the mother would watch Sakie carefully, and whenever Sakie was without Tetsuo, Sakura would bombard her with her 'twenty questions'.

Sakie's favorites were:

"Can I dress you up and use you to taunt Tetsuo?"

"Do you ever have problems with lesbians?"

"I hear you do Judo, I do Tai Chi with Mom, will you fight me?"

And of course

"Why haven't you slept with Tetsuo yet?"

The answers to these questions were: Yes, you can dress me up, though I doubt you have anything in my bust size, but you can't use me to taunt Tetsuo. (she did have something in her size, and they spent that first night painting nails and playing dress up. Tetsuo was banished to the garage to fix up his sister's car.) Sure lesbians get turned on and uncomfortable around her, but they rarely act on it, so they weren't really a problem, (except for that one time in Okinawa). Sakie hadn't had a match in a long time, but if Sakura really wanted to, they could. (They did, on the beach. Sakie won, but Sakura put up a fight.) and then of course, the last one.

This question she was not expecting, especially with Mrs. Takahashi right there, but Sakie had to answer. It was her making up for all the loops she put Tetsuo through, accommodating his family like this. The older woman's eyes sharpened as Sakie struggled to answer.

"Uh…I guess it's because _I_ need to take it slow," she confessed, "Tetsuo has done me the honor of letting me control the pacing of our physical relationship, and because he is my first boyfriend, I've had to learn a lot."

"Your first?" Mrs. Takahashi interrupted. Her eyebrows were raised and both girls needed to blink. This was the first question the older woman had commented on. Sakie flushed.

"Uh, yes. See, I always knew that I could get men to sleep with me using my aphrodisiac effect, but I always wanted something more out of making love. My nature makes so that if I don't want sex with someone, I can't touch them. Because of that, and because I hate the idea of controlling men against their will, I learned to flinch away from male touch. I avoided it at all costs, and if someone reached out to touch me to feel my effect on them on purpose, I judo flipped them in defense.

"Now that I have someone I am honestly in love with, I have to retrain all those tendencies to defend myself, teach myself how not to flinch away. But I have to retrain them without being able to take little steps like holding hands or kissing, so it's been difficult. I think I'm almost ready. I learned how to be comfortable around him, how to let little things go, like letting my hair down or taking off my glasses. I even fell asleep on him on the train ride here."

Sakie wanted to curl up now, after admitting all of that to her boyfriend's mother, and she was certainly blushing enough to justify blood loss as an excuse for fainting (somewhere in the back of her mind, Tetsuo lectured about the biological impossibility of that happening, and she ignored him) but she just waited.

What they didn't see was Tetsuo hiding around the corner, like he usually did when his sister was in the middle of her game, grinning like an idiot, holding the majong tiles they had sent him to go get. Wow, he loved Sakie. And Sakura.

"Well don't wait too long child," Mrs. Takahashi said, startling everyone, "You've put my boy through enough already."

The awkwardness was palpable, and Tetsuo was wondering if it was time to break it when Sakie broke it.

"Thank you for your approval," Sakie said respectfully, "I can't help but be curious…well you seemed to really dislike succubi when we met…do you—by any chance, have you met a succubus before?"

No one breathed as Mrs. Takahashi decided on how to answer.

"Yes, I have," she said at last, "And even rarer, it was a male succubus." There was silence.

"Mom! Why haven't you ever told me?" Sakura complained. "What happened? Were you dating Dad at the time? Did you sleep with him?"

Sakie gasped, but Mrs. Takahashi waved away her daughter's questions.

"Calm down child. It was back when I working as the mayor's secretary, and we were at a formal function. I had wandered outside for some clean air, and I saw him, the succubus, with the mayor's two daughters, both giggling after him. It was disgusting, or would have been if he hadn't been dressed to the nines. Of course, as soon as he saw me, he reached out a hand to invite me to join them in a room upstairs.

"He touched me and suddenly I was willing to. I would have followed him anywhere with that single touch, all for the hope of another moment of his attention. Then the mayor rounded the corner with your father, who I had met once before, and the succubus took off with the other two girls clinging to him. I was left flushed, gasping, and I collapsed against a wall. The mayor re-introduced me to your father, and as I flinched away from the handshake, I knew that he knew, and I felt so…worthless. Of course, later, after the mayor left, your father asked where the succubus had gone and who with. I answered, and he made sure I knew that it wasn't my fault, and that it said a lot about my integrity that I hadn't gone with them."

"Wow," Sakura said. "Now things make a little more sense. You could probably have stopped Tetsuo's obsession with demi-humans if you'd shared that story before."

"More importantly," Mrs. Takahashi said proudly, "was the lesson I learned about control and responsibility. That I taught you and your brother quite nicely."

"I agree," Sakie said softly, "Thank you for sharing that story. I regret that others of my nature use them for unsavory means, but I am glad for the lessons you were able to teach your children about self-worth and self-control."

Mrs. Takahashi huffed and fell back against the couch she was sitting on, "If you were an ounce less polite and respectful, I would have made sure to chase you out of here on the first day," she said ruefully. "That was the most helpless I have ever felt in my life, and the thought of someone using that power over one of my children made me angry. You've made it very clear however, that you would wish this trial of yours away if you could, and you do the best that you can. Please take care of my son, Ms. Sato."

"All that is within my ability," Sakie said, offering a hand for her to clasp. Tetsuo decided to make his entrance then, before his sister could open her big mouth and ruin everything.

"You guys sure hid these well," he said, "it took forever to find the right cabinet."

His sister immediately broke out in protest, saying it was his fault for never coming home. Which he replied that he would visit more if they would stop banishing him.

Later that night, after a lovely meal of okonomiyaki, he and Sakie were walking by the beach.

"So, how much were you listening to today?" she asked casually.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you mean," he replied.

"I'll eat my glasses if you weren't listening before majong."

"I hope you like the taste of red plastic," he teased. She stuck her tongue out, then waited. He sighed. Sakie had gotten too good at reading him.

"I think I've listened to about fifteen of my sister's interrogations of you," he admitted.

"She's only asked me eighteen questions," Sakie said, startled, then calmed. "What did you think of your mom's story."

He took a deep breath and focused on the waves, "Like Sakura, it explains some things. It's going to be hard holding back from asking her more specifically about the effects of a male succubus, considering I wasn't supposed to have heard that."

"That's not what I meant," Sakie said, and waited for him to give her a real answer.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Of course not. Well, something I learned about relationships is that no relationship can exist without being tied up in messy strings of control and connection. Having control and involuntary effect over someone connects two people, but it's when the person uses that control to promote continuous understanding, affection, and connection, that control doesn't become a bad thing."

He glanced over to seek Sakie thinking it over, her thinking face turning pink in the fading sunlight, "I'm trying to understand, but maybe I'm too independent or weird or something, because it isn't clicking." Sakie said, "What's an example? When is a relation about control, and when is it better because it is used to promote understanding and connection?"

"Well…every relationship. As teachers, we are connected to our students by the control we have over their futures, and the time they spend depending on us to teach them. Because we use that time and that control to understand them, teach them, and prepare them for life, the relationship is successful and both parties feel better for it."

They kept walking as Sakie thought it over. "So…me and Ugaki. With his position in the police, he has the control to get me in trouble with the government. As a succubus, I have the power to…seduce him against his will. But because he uses his power to try and understand my circumstances and desires, to connect with me—and I don't try to use my abilities on him—because we both have control that we use responsibly to deepen our understanding of each other, the relationship is successful."

"That's it," Tetsuo said. "Your relationships with men have been odd because you immediately have a control over them that they didn't give you, and it scrambles how the two of you are supposed to act. However, when they understand like I do, that you don't want to control them, you have already a lot on your part towards understanding and connection. Men don't usually have any power over you though, and they aren't inferior automatically like students are, so it becomes unbalanced. They either turn you into an object made for them to try and try to gain power they don't actually have, or they run away."

They started walking again, and Tetsuo let her think.

"Hmm, that makes sense. Particularly with some of my failed relationships." Saki said, gazing at the boardwalk under their feet, lost in the past, "My dad, we could have had equal power, but I didn't know how to restrain my control over him, and he tried to manipulate me instead of understand me."

"It's something instinctive, inherent in the process of social bonds, but putting it into words helps with the unusual situations," Tetsuo said, then glanced at where they were, "We've walked farther than I wanted to, we should probably be heading back."

"Okay," she said, turning around. Her hair fluttered in the light breeze, and he was struck for the hundred thousandth time with her beauty. "So where does that leave us?"

"Huh?" he said, trying to not focus on her hair. Or skin. Or eyes.

"I've always had this control over you, and I've never used it. Why didn't the imbalance send you running?" she asked.

"I suppose my interest in Demi-humans over powered an instinctual problems of control," he said, forcing himself to think back, "Plus, you've never really had the power to make me act against my morals. Mother made sure of that. So it's less unbalanced between us."

"Oh really?" she said with a dangerous lilt, he swallowed. "I think it's something else." And she took a few steps ahead of him and turned to face him in dusk, her skin almost glowing as the moon's light replaced the sun's. She tilted her head to look up at him, glasses falling down her nose to look at him directly. His breath caught, and he didn't move as she continued, "I never put you under my power, not fully, which has made you confident in yourself, but the truth is you that fixed the problem of imbalance by simply giving me control. I earned it by never abusing your trust, but it isn't fixed because you aren't affected by me, it is fine because you don't mind being under my control."

Now, if this wasn't Sakie, if this was a normal relationship, he would challenge her notion of not being affected by him. He'd be able to breathe in her ear and whisper words to make her flush. But this was Sakie, this was not a normal relationship, and in terms of physical control, she was more than correct. He gave her that control that first date, the right to use it. Maybe even before, when he allowed her to affect him and not flinch from it for her sake. Of course, she'd never been so daring in the past, and in this moment, he had no defense against her accusation. He was completely under her control. He needed to tell her the end though, the fact that you want to be under the control of the ones you love, the ones you trust.

Tetsuo couldn't, because he was speechless, gazing down at her, proving her point. But then she fidgeted, and he remembered that while this was a strange relationship, but not that strange, his rules of control and connection still applied. He made her uncomfortable, made her blush, made her panic. His control over himself unbalanced her, and she gave him control over her just as surely as he gave her control over him.

"You're right," he said at last, "I was wrong. It was my control over myself that unbalanced you, but it was the control you gave me that balanced it. You offered to spend your time with me, you valued onto my comments and evaluated my wild theories. You blushed and tried to flirt. You let me push you in new directions, and expand your mind. You allowed me to get to know you without using your effect. You gave me those controls, balancing the relationship, and I never abused them."

Her breath caught and she seemed to have difficulty speaking as he looked at her with that sort of pure love that you only read about in books, something she had once sworn couldn't exist for her. "We both used those controls to create connection. Understanding." Her voice was thick with emotion, a whisper, a prayer, and he raised his hand to touch her face, but stopped just before.

"And we've reached the point," he said, voice thick, hand trembling. The point. That was their word. The tipping point. The point of no return. The peak, the last moment of stability before being swept to catastrophe or safety. The point of existence, and the point of humans as creatures of evolution. The point.

He was expecting her to step away, allow one of them to start talking something science, to go back to the status quo. Instead, she reached up and pulled his hand to her face, letting him touch the skin there, even turning her head to press her smiling lips into his palm.

And she took the final step. The step between them vanished.

 **A/N: This chapter is the reason I've frozen on this story for so long. Though the story has been complete and mostly well written, I personally have never written anything that even implied my characters had sex before marriage due to my personal views on the subject. Also I'm a virgin, so while I wrote more on the end, it felt inaccurate and wrong, and I ended it where I did. I hope you liked this story. Let me know what you think in a review!**

 **Love,**

 **thecagedsong**


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